Cool Tools: The Windows 2000 Setup Manager

Windows 2000 offers a lot of different ways for you to
automate your installations. You can use the tried and true unattended
installations using scripts to perform the installation just the way you like
it. Windows 2000 also includes some new tools, such as the Remote Installations
Service (RIS) and the Sysprep utility. RIS Allows you to create images of your
Windows 2000 Professional installations and deploy those over the network. You
can deploy vanilla versions or if you choose to use the RIPrep utility, you can
blast customized versions of Windows 2000 Professional images over the network.
If you prefer to use 3rd party disk imaging programs such a Norton
Ghost or Drive Image Professional, the Sysprep utility will remove security
identifiers on your master image machine so that it is ready for imaging by your
favorite utility.

Windows 2000 offers a lot of different ways for you to automate your installations. You can use the tried and true unattended installations using scripts to perform the installation just the way you like it. Windows 2000 also includes some new tools, such as the Remote Installations Service (RIS) and the Sysprep utility. RIS Allows you to create images of your Windows 2000 Professional installations and deploy those over the network. You can deploy vanilla versions or if you choose to use the RIPrep utility, you can blast customized versions of Windows 2000 Professional images over the network.

Enter the Windows 2000 Setup Manager

If you use any of these methods, you'll want to get to know
your new best friend, the Windows 2000 Setup Manager. This new version of the
setup manager does more than crank out simple unattend.txt files for simple over
the network installations. This new and improved version of the Setup Manager
can perform many of the tasks required to make any of your favorite installation
methods work correctly.

The Setup Manager is part of the mini-version of the Windows
2000 Resource Kit that comes on the Windows 2000 Server CD-ROM. Drill down to
the \SUPPORT\TOOLS folder and Double click on the 2000RKST.MSI
file. This will install the Setup Manager along with some other helpful tools.

Running The Setup Manager

To run the Setup Manager, open the Run command and type
setupmgr. That'll open the welcome screen. The next screen allows you
to chose from several options:

Say you wanted an answer file that will duplicate the computer's
configuration, select that one and click Next and you see:

If you wanted to create an answer file for a Sysprep install
you would select that option, or you might want an answer file to configure your
RIS installation. If you're into doing it the old fashioned by, you can create
a finely tuned unattended installation script using the Setup Manager.

The Windows 2000 Setup Manager gives you many, many more
configuration options than those that were available with the setup manager you
worked with from the Windows NT 4.0 Resource Kit. If you would like to see the
rest of the screens based on a Sysprep install of the machine I am working on
now, click on page 2 below.

For More Information

Most of the information you need about the Windows 2000 Setup
Manager is located in the help file that is included when you install the
mini-version of the Resource Kit.

If you want a quick overview of deploying Windows
Professional, check THIS
link out.